Ground Rite For 1st Of 3 Shop Centers Held In Whitehall

November 14, 1985|The Morning Call

The first of three new shopping centers planned within a mile of each other on the west side of MacArthur Road made its official entrance into Whitehall Township yesterday with groundbreaking ceremonies at its Mickley and MacArthur roads site.

The ceremonies for the MacArthur Road Shopping Center were held inside the former Allentown Chrysler Plymouth car dealership building, which is to be renovated and expanded for the 35,000-square-foot center.

Anchoring the $2.1-million center just south of the Best Products store will be Drug Emporium, a deep-discount national drug chain which advertises low every-day retail prices on brand-name health and beauty aids.

Paul Petru, regional vice president, said yesterday his seven-year-old company has more than 75 stores, including 12 in the Delaware Valley. He said the closest one is under construction in Norristown.

Petru said Drug Emporium will hire 50-60 people to run the 22,000-square- fo ot store, which is expected to open by April 1.

Developing the shopping center are four men from Philadelphia and New York City who have built about six Drug Emporium-anchored centers, said partner Michael Grasso.

The other partners in the development team, which is trading under the name MacArthur Road Plaza Associates, are Alan Weissman and I. Michael Goodman of New York and Laurence Berk of Philadelphia.

Grasso said Drug Emporium is the only confirmed tenant for the center but he is negotiating with other potential tenants. He said he is seeking as many as five additional tenants.

Grasso attributed the slowness in obtaining tenants to a "credibility gap that may exist," because the center is being developed quite a bit later and in a different form than was originally proposed.

Two Philaldelphia men an- nounced plans nearly a year ago to raze the car dealership and build a 24,790-square-foot, free-standing Kids 'R' Us children's clothing store and a 22,800-square-foot strip of stores.

Those plans were scrapped last summer when Kids 'R' Us announced it would be a tenant in the Whitehall Square Shopping Center, a proposed 287,620- square-foot retail center which has been approved by the township for a 30- acre tract a few hundred yards to the north.

The third new shopping center proposed for MacArthur Road is MacArthur Square, a 200,200-square-foot center planned for 23 acres adjacent to Kiddie City.

US Realty Associates of Philadelphia is the leasing agent for the MacArthur Road Shopping Center. The architect is Techow Lei and the contractor is USRA Construction Management Co., Philadelphia.